[identity profile] beltspinner.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] learn_russian
Can someone explain to me the difference between the following ways of expressing obligation? I got yelled at in class on Tuesday for not understanding, and I still just don't see understand when one is used against another.

что + обязанность + кого/чего
что + входит в обязанности + кого/чего
что + ябляется обязанностю + кого/чего


Second question:
How do you make verbs into nouns? For the above constructions we're working on, we have to say something like "Reading is the responsibility of a student". I just never learned how to make these constructions.

Thanks

Date: 2008-09-04 02:07 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sithoid.livejournal.com
что + обязанность + кого/чего
Just a construction describing obligation. Usually used with a dash and word "это" (is)

Читать - это обязанность студента.

что + входит в обязанности + кого/чего
literally "something is a part of someone's responsibilities". It is used when someone has a list of responsibilities given by his/her work or status. For example, "выписывать чек входит в обязанности продавца" - "giving cheque is a part of the clerk's duty"

что + является обязанностю + кого/чего
A very formal expression, you can meet it only in official speeches or papers. First two constructions can be used with a verb (читать, выписывать чек), but here a noun suits better.
"Помощь следствию является обязанностью любого гражданина" - "assisting the investigation is an obligatin of any citizen"

I didn`t get the second question...

Date: 2008-09-04 03:19 am (UTC)
oryx_and_crake: (Default)
From: [personal profile] oryx_and_crake
I didn`t get the second question...
---
That's because in Russian you don't "make verbs into nouns", a verb and a noun may have the same stem but you don't make one of the other. (Sometimes you do something similar with the -ание, -ение suffixes, but most of the time you don't, e.g. помогать and помощь are not derived from each other.)

Date: 2008-09-04 04:39 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] icamel.livejournal.com
Чтение - обязанность студента.

Date: 2008-09-04 05:02 am (UTC)
oryx_and_crake: (Default)
From: [personal profile] oryx_and_crake
Sorry for off-topic, and it's, of course, no business of mine, but if I were yelled at by my teacher, I'd change a teacher and maybe would even complain to the management.

Date: 2008-09-04 05:04 am (UTC)
oryx_and_crake: (Default)
From: [personal profile] oryx_and_crake
P.S. These phrases are not that different, they all mean that XX is a duty of YY. I'd have a hard time determining why should I use one and not the other.

Date: 2008-09-04 05:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] city-twilight.livejournal.com
did your teacher explsained this earlier? is your teacher russian himself? i'm asking because teachers and scientists often create norms of language and its rules that are absolutely fake and unnatural. it's the funniest thing - to read a textbook of russian written to english-speaking people or other foreigners - the language is so strange there...

ads to common sence, everything had been already said, i just want to stress once more that the meaning of all 3 constructions is the same, it's just different situations they are used in.
что + обязанность + кого/чего - this is sort of a general statement

что + входит в обязанности + кого/чего - it's ,really, connected with job. Mom can't tell her child "уборка входит в твои обязанности".


что + ябляется обязанностю + кого/чего is indeed VERY formal.

I just thought about ethimolofy of the "обязан" - that derives from "обвязан", tied by the rope, so обязанность - it's the condition of being tied to something =0)
sorry for opfftopic =)


Date: 2008-09-04 05:56 am (UTC)
oryx_and_crake: (Default)
From: [personal profile] oryx_and_crake
Mom can't tell her child "уборка входит в твои обязанности".
---
Actually, she can. I can very well imagine the following addressed to a child:
- В твои обязанности входит уборка твоей комнаты и вынос мусора. Кроме того, ты должен ежедневно гулять с собакой и раз в два дня покупать молоко и хлеб в магазине.

Date: 2008-09-04 07:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wolk-off.livejournal.com
Well, if she's a hard-skulled, old-school bureaucrat bitch -- most definitely, then :)

Date: 2008-09-04 03:28 pm (UTC)
ext_689127: (Default)
From: [identity profile] milhent.livejournal.com
Actually, "уборка входит в твои обязанности" is a normal phrase in russian.

As for original question:
что + обязанность + кого/чего - a general statement, means that something is a duty of _this_ mentioned person, and not someone else.
что + входит в обязанности + кого/чего - something is a part of duty, along with other things.
что + является обязанностю + кого/чего - something is a main part of duty, may be even the only thing he has to do.

Date: 2008-09-04 03:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wolk-off.livejournal.com
>Actually, "уборка входит в твои обязанности" is a normal phrase in russian.

Right. Only, a normal mom wouldn't normally speak so blankly and officially to her kid, unless she is, to a certain degree, a bitch -- or they're already in quite bad terms, so that employing official speech is necessary :)

Date: 2008-09-05 08:39 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] icedink.livejournal.com
Your teacher yelled at you?

Are you by any chance living IN Russia?
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